


I Dare You

by shana0809



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-23
Updated: 2017-12-23
Packaged: 2019-02-19 06:46:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13118277
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shana0809/pseuds/shana0809
Summary: Connor and Leon stumble towards a relationship.





	I Dare You

**Author's Note:**

  * For [liroa15](https://archiveofourown.org/users/liroa15/gifts).



Leon is his favourite line mate. He’s got nothing against any of the others, but playing with Leon is almost instinctive. He just knows where Leon will be on the ice; it’s second nature. Sometimes, he wonders if that could translate to something other than hockey.

Off the ice, Leon is still his favourite. There’s something about the German winger which draws Connor in. None of the others have the same magnetism. He hasn’t felt this way about anyone since junior, and since that didn’t end great, he thought he was just going to play hockey. Instead, he gets to play hockey on a struggling team and have complicated feelings for a teammate.

It’s not an improvement. 

Especially since he’s pretty sure Leon doesn’t feel the same any more than Dylan did. But how can Leon? They both have the weight of an entire franchise and hockey-mad city on their shoulders.

He reminds himself not to kiss Leon every time they go out and get a little drunk after a win; each time he stops himself from kissing Leon, it gets a little harder. He wants to kiss Leon, but there’s too much on the line to risk it. When he gets too down about it, there’s also Dylan in his ear always telling him to kiss the boy. Since he doesn’t like hearing useless advice, he tries not to bring it up with Dylan. 

One day, he’s going to see what their on-ice chemistry could translate to though. Maybe the day after they win the Stanley Cup. He’s not sure he’ll have the courage before he’s drunk on success and champagne. Maybe Leon will take some of the pressure off him and kiss him. That would make everything so much easier.

He’s not counting on it though.

All of that is the reason he opened the door when Caigs knocked on it, dragging a moderately drunk Leon in after him. Caigs rabbited pretty quickly, leaving Connor with a drunk Leon on Connor’s couch. Stupidly attractive and very drunk. Leon is a test to his patience.

“Are you ever going to kiss me?” Leon’s slurring just a little, but the words are clear enough for Connor to understand.

Connor chokes. “What do you mean?”

“I’m not blind, even if everyone else seems to be, you know. I see you looking. I keep waiting for you to do something, but you never do.”

Connor feels like his face is on fire; he’s probably bright red. Leon knows. He never imagined he’d be having this conversation. This is a thousand times worse than what happened with Dylan. At least a thousand times worse.

“Can we talk about this later? You’re drunk. I don’t think we should do this now.”

“Fine. Run away from it. You always do. You must be really good at it now.”

Connor can feel his temper start to fray. It’s not like Leon’s actually willing to talk about this when he’s sober. It’s really easy for Leon to be brave when he’s drunk. 

Connor will never be able to figure out what the hell makes kissing Leon right then seem like a good idea. It’s probably a mix of him being angry and Leon being gorgeous. While that doesn’t make it a good idea, but it does make him willing to temporarily ignore the fact it’s a really bad one.  
He can taste the beer Leon was drinking with Caigs, Benny, and Nursey before Caigs left Leon for Connor to deal with. It mixes with Leon’s taste and it’s nice. It’s also reckless and puts years of work at risk for both of them.

But it feels damn good.

He threads his fingers through Leon’s hair and deepens the kiss as much as he dares. Pulling away may be the hardest thing he’s ever done, but he knows it’s the right thing. His mom would kill him if she thought he was taking advantage of someone. Right after she told him she loved him even if he liked sleeping with guys too.

“We’ll talk about this in the morning. Do you need help finding your way to the guest room?” Connor is proud of how even his voice sounds. It doesn’t waiver and shake like it did that time with Dylan; he’s going to be an adult about this not a lovesick teenager.

“Nein, I know the way to your guest room. I’ve stayed there enough times.”

Connor wants to reassure Leon that everyone of their friends has crashed in his spare room, but Leon is right. He’s probably stayed over more than most. But Leon is Connor’s favourite, and that makes everything okay. At least for Connor it does.

Leon waves a little bit and heads towards Connor’s guest room, leaving a stunned Connor behind. He has no clue what the hell just happened.

~

Leon looks like something out of one of Connor’s wet dreams in the morning, rumpled and approachable. Fortunately, Leon doesn’t seem to be any worse for last night’s drinking. He’s not covering his eyes or asking for aspirin or anything Connor is used to in hungover teammates.

Leon sits down at Connor’s kitchen table. “Coffee?” he asks, his voice scratchy.

“Yeah, give me a few minutes. I’m not so good at mornings.”

Leon laughs, and it sounds stupidly good to Connor’s ears. He wants people to know that he’s the cause of Leon’s happiness, which is stupid. Leon laughs at a lot of things. He needs to get his head on straight. It was one ill-advised kiss. It doesn’t have to mean anything, and he can’t let it change anything between them. If it does, it could ruin everything between them on the ice.

Leon watches the coffee pot with the same intensity Connor watches game tape. Connor tries not to find it adorable. He fails miserably.

“You want to talk about this now or wait until after coffee?”

Connor blinks. He was really hoping Leon was too drunk to remember what happened last night. It would have made this whole morning a lot easier.

“After coffee,” he mumbles. Leon should know he’s not good at mornings by now. The team has turned it into a running joke after all.

Leon takes his time with the coffee, letting Connor wake up and regain the use of his brain.

It’s maybe forty minutes, and not nearly long enough, before Leon clears his throat and looks at Connor with intent. Connor knows what that means. He’s going to have to sit down and talk about what happened last night because, apparently, Leon is not going to pretend it didn’t happen.

“Okay, tell me what you remember from when Caigs dropped you off at my place.” Connor is going to approach this the same way he would assessing his opposition. Find out what they know and figure out how to counter it. Just like playing hockey.

“I was drunk, but I wasn’t that drunk, Davo.”

“Just tell me.” He uses his captain voice, but he’s pretty sure no one would blame him for being a little annoyed. Drunk Leon communicates better. Sober Leon is a cagey fuck.

“I asked why you always look and never kiss me, and then I goaded you a bit, and then you…”

“I kissed you,” he interrupts because it feels like the words are burning on his tongue. He just has to say them, and Leon’s not getting there fast enough. It’s weird because he didn’t want to do this, and now he feels like he can’t stop. He has to talk about it.

Leon nods. “You kissed me. It wasn’t a great kiss, and I really think that we could do better with practice. And maybe if I knew you were going to kiss me.”

“You dared me.”

Leon frowns. “Did you kiss me because you wanted to or to prove a point?”

“Why can’t it be both? You know I wanted to kiss you. You told me I was running away. I wanted to prove I wasn’t.”

“Then you ran away faster than before.”

“I’m your captain. I’m not supposed to have favourites on the team. Getting in a relationship with someone is ten times worse than just having a favourite. At least.”

“You’re being stupid. No one expects all this perfect captain bullshit from you except the media. None of the guys think you’re anything by a really good hockey player who takes himself too seriously. You should try letting go every once in a while. You might find out that not everything has to go exactly the way you think for it to be good.”

Leon’s gone before Connor can think of anything to say in reply.

He doesn’t know what to do with what Leon’s told him, but since they have practice later, he’s going to ignore it for now. He’ll figure out how to make it up to Leon later and still be the captain his team needs. It’s just going to take him a little time to figure out how.

~

It’s taken Connor the better part of two weeks, and a phone call to Dylan, to figure out what he needs to do. He’s going to prove to Leon that he’s capable of being authentic and human and just another guy. He can be boyfriend material. He’s going to be the best boyfriend material Leon has ever seen.

Dylan had mentioned that maybe he’s being too competitive about this, but he knows Leon will appreciate it. Connor feels like their understanding of each other will ensure it makes sense to Leon. If not, he’ll have to try talking about it.

He really hopes he doesn’t have to talk about it because that didn’t go really well last time.

He had to trade a couple signed jerseys to one of the guys that run the facility get some private ice time. He could have asked for it the normal way, but then everyone would want to know why he needed it. This should be between him and Leon. 

Just theirs.

He’s not really good at romantic gestures, but he knows that much.

The ice is beautiful. Crisp, clean, and empty. In short, perfect.

He’s waiting for Leon to show up. He sent the text to meet him at the rink tonight, but that doesn’t mean Leon is going to; he never answered.

Still, Connor laces his skates and waits. He carefully chose what he was going to wear today. Finding one of Leon’s shirts was pretty easy, but Connor wasn’t sure if he should wear it, or if that was too much. Dylan assured him it was better than him trying to talk about his feelings.

Dylan’s kind of an asshole though.

He’s skating circles when he hears someone at the gate, lost in the feel of being on the ice and being able to go as fast as he wants. He stops and turns towards where he knows Leon will be.

“What’s all this?” Leon’s voice carries in the quiet.

“You wanted to know if I cared about you more than I cared about being the captain of the Oilers. So I figured I’d show you.”

“Skating is supposed to prove that?”

Connor can feel the heat rising in his face. He was so sure Leon would just understand what he was trying to say. Leon understands him so well on the ice that he was sure it would be the same here.

Connor stops, struggling to find the right words to actually tell Leon why he’s wearing a shirt with Leon’s number on it, and why they’re alone on the ice right now. “When I was a kid, I always thought when I really liked someone, I’d take them skating. That there would be nothing better than doing something I love with a person I love. So I figured we could go skating.”  
Leon smiles then, and Connor feels like he can breathe again. He hasn’t fucked it up. Leon does get it. Leon is still exactly who he imagined his line mate to be.

“Come over here and kiss me first. I want a do-over.”

Connor laughs then. “Tell me you didn’t forget your skates.”

“Of course not. You invited me to an arena.”

“Good. Because skating would be sort of awkward if you had.”

Leon leans over the boards and Connor leans in, and it’s better than their first kiss. Maybe it’s because they’re both sober, or maybe it’s because Connor’s in skates, or maybe it’s just because Leon knows what’s happening. Whatever reason, Connor’s sure it’s pretty much the best first-kiss do-over ever.

When they break apart, Connor can feel himself flush as Leon’s hand rests against the number on his shoulder. This may have been his best idea ever.

“Go get your skates. I dare you.”

“Oh, you dare me?”

Connor just smiles and takes off down the ice.

**Author's Note:**

> For liroa15 in the hockey holidays challenge


End file.
